Machine and equipment assets, generally, are engineered to perform particular tasks as part of a business process. For example, assets can include, among other things and without limitation, industrial manufacturing equipment on a production line, drilling equipment for use in mining operations, wind turbines that generate electricity on a wind farm, transportation vehicles, and the like. As another example, assets may include healthcare machines and equipment that aid in diagnosing patients such as imaging devices (e.g., X-ray or MM systems), monitoring devices, and the like. The design and implementation of these assets often takes into account both the physics of the task at hand, as well as the environment in which such assets are configured to operate.
Low-level software and hardware-based controllers have long been used to drive machine and equipment assets. However, the rise of inexpensive cloud computing, increase in sensor capabilities, decrease in sensor costs, and the proliferation of mobile technologies have generated new opportunities for creating novel industrial and healthcare based assets with improved sensing technology and which are capable of transmitting data that can then be distributed throughout a network. As a consequence, there are new opportunities to enhance the business value of some assets through the use of novel industrial-focused hardware and software.
When sensor data is first acquired, the sensed data is in raw format. In particular, raw sensor data that is captured from or in association with machine and equipment assets is not user friendly and often includes data that is not relevant or of interest. For example, the raw data is not useful for monitoring the asset or performing analytics associated with the asset because these functions require the data to be converted into more usable format capable of being read and understood by other software and hardware. Furthermore, the sensed data may come from multiple sources that each measure different characteristics and features associated with the asset. Accordingly, what is needed is a solution that can modify raw sensor data into a more usable format and which is capable of being used across different machines, systems, and equipment.